The Road reading questions part 10-11

Why does the man in the parka say that the boy needs to keep out of the road?

As has been established through the entire book, the road is a dangerous place.

Predict what will happen when they leave the town.

As they leave the town, the man grows steadily sicker..... the father will soon die, leaving his son to carry on alone.

What do the brook trout represent?

By this point in the novel we are so used to death, decay, and violence. Then McCarthy gives us a beautiful image of nature.

"It occurred to him that he took this windfall in a fashion dangerously close to matter of fact but still he said what he had said before. That good luck might be no such thing." (229-230) Explain what the father means.

Despite finding supplies in the ship, the man knew their fate would not be changed. Good luck means little when the world is dead.

Why does the man say that his son reminds him of an orphan waiting for a bus?

Even though the father is there, the boy still looks alone. It is as if the father is on loan and eventually the boy will be by himself standing with his tattered suitcase waiting for something The man looks at his son, "like an orphan waiting for a bus" that will never come.

How does the sextant affect the man, and why?

He also recovers a toolbox, a bottle of gas, and a sextant, which "was the first thing he'd seen in a long time that stirred him." It is alluded to that the man was once an experienced seaman before the apocalypse.

Do you think the man in the parka is a good guy? Why?

It certainly looks that way. He does not want anything from the boy. He just asks him about his father and invites the bot to join him. He doesn't eat people and he has a family.

What does the woman represent?

It is said that the woman in the man's dream represents the ghost of his wife tempting him to follow her to the grave.

Why does the man in the parka pause before answering the boyʼs question, about whether he is a good guy?

I think he has not heard that term in a long time. The line between good and bad has been blurred to obscurity in a dead world. The man has also probably done some "bad" things to safeguard his family. The man in the parka must think about what the boy means.

How long do you think he was following or watching the boy and the man?

I think it has been a long time or at least since the boy and the man spotted the other boy. The man in the parka knows about the boy's father.

Predict what will happen when they catch up to the thief / thieves.

I was scared that there would be a fight and that the man or boy would get injured or killed.

Of what use might the flare pistol be?

If the man had to, he could fire it at a person and burn him.

Where do you think the thief went?

In my opinion, the man went to seek shelter or find someone else to steal from. He was naked and hardened..... he would have set his sights on surviving in whatever way possible.

Was it a good idea for the man to shoot the flare? Why?

No, it was probably not a good idea to shoot the flare, but the father gives into his son's desire for a celebration. The flare signals their presence.... and alerts others to their location.

How does the father get them back to camp?

They hold hands and take small step'd together in the darkness.

Why canʼt the father kill his son?

THe father refuses to have his son die in his arms. His whole being was to keep his son alive regardless of the Hell this world had become. The father simply did not have it in him to kill his own son, even if killing him was the responsible thing to do.

What is the ʻgoodnessʼ to which the father refers?

The "goodness" is good people..... for there will always be good people and love if you look long enough to find them. "Goodness will find the little boy. It always has. It will again" (236).

How does the boy feel about his fatherʼs action?

The boy did not agree with his father's actions

Why do you think the thief responds to the boy by surrendering?

The boy is begging for the man's life. In the boy, the thief finds forgiveness and sympathy.... something not found in the world they live in.

How long does the boy stay with his father? Why?

The boy weeps, goes to the road, then returns to his father's side to hold his hand, crying his name. The boy remains by his father for three days. Finally, he returns to the road. The boy stays to grieve.

What does the boy do when he sees someone coming? Why?

The boy, "just stood in the road and waited, the pistol in his hand." The boy had little choice. He was on his own and needed somebody to survive.The boy's father had predicted or even prophesized that "goodness" would find his boy.

How do they find the thief and their supplies?

The father decides to hunt down the robbers, so they track the prints. They find the thief pushing their cart and wielding a butcher's knife.

Explain the manʼs punishment of the thief. Do you think he did the right thing?

The father decides to hunt down the robbers, so they track the prints. They find the thief pushing their cart and wielding a butcher's knife. The man aims the pistol at the thief. "He was an outcast from one of the communes and the fingers of his right hand had been cut away" (215). The man cocks his pistol and warns the thief to step away from their cart. The boy begs his father not to kill the thief. Accordingly, the father instead forces the thief to take off all of his clothes and put them in the cart.

"He walked out on the beach to the edge of the light and stood with his clenched fists on top of his skull and fell to his knees sobbing with rage." (250) Explain the emotions the man is feeling, and the reasons why.

The father experiences feelings of frustration and uselessness. They've survived thus far, but the father isn't improving, and his first priority is his son. What will happen when he succumbs to the illness he himself is fighting.

What is the father afraid of when the boy is sick?

The father is frightened when his son's illness seems to worsen rather than improve. He agonizes over his son's illness. He sleeps restlessly. Eventually when he awakens, the boy is better and his fever has broken.

What does the father say is the bravest thing he ever did? Why?

The father says the bravest thing he did was "getting up this morning". The father wants to die. He is sick and exhausted but he gets up for his boy.

Why do you think the father keeps going, when the easiest thing would be to give up?

The father's instinct is to keep his son alive. That is all he knows how to do. The best thing might have been to kill the boy and himself but the man thinks the boy must live for a greater purpose, My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand?

Why do you think the thief was an outcast? Suggest reasons why his fingers had been cut away.

The man had belonged to a commune and was banished for some indiscretion or argument. We could surmise that he tried to steal food because he had his fingers cut off.

What useful things does he find on the boat?

The man is able to retrieve some clothes for himself and the boy. He also recovers a toolbox, a bottle of gas, and a sextant

Why do think the man with the bow tried to kill them?

The man probably felt like everyone else..... he had to protect what he had, and in most cases it was kill or be killed.

"The slow surf crawled and seethed in the dark and he thought about his life but there was no life to think about and after a while he walked back." (237) What does this mean? What is the man realizing here?

The man realizes that the hope he had about reaching the sea only lead to more lifeless disaster. The man realizes there is no destination for them anymore: the world is dead.

How has the manʼs perspective about the boy changed? Why?

The man sees that the boy is no longer helpless and scared. The boy has a kind of existential ethereal quality about him that transcends fear. The boy is no longer shocked by death and misery. He seems to incorporate the devastation into his own consciousness and somehow purify them.

The boy forgets the pistol on the beach, but the father doesnʼt get angry. Why is that?

The pistol has no bullets left. It can only be used as a threat at this point. The father also knows his Boy is in hell and refuses to upset him.

Why is the woman glad to see the boy?

The wife of the man, upon their arrival, hugs the boy. She tries to talk to the boy about God sometimes, but the boy finds it easier to talk to his father. "The woman said that was all right. She said that the breath of God was his breath yet though it pass from man to man through all of time" (241).

Why was going back for the pistol a problem?

There was a storm that was coming and if it caught up to them, it could mean death

What does the fatherʼs knowledge of sailboat vocabulary suggest?

This suggests that he used to be a sailor before the world ended.

Why doesnʼt the boy want to hear his fatherʼs stories anymore?

When the father offers to tell his son a story, the boy rejects him. "Those stories are not true.... In the stories we're always helping people and we don't help people" (225).